DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon. I'd like to welcome Anton Kruiderink, who is the Director of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) regional bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and he'd like to discuss with you the new UNDP report on human development for Europe and the CIS countries. We will get to him in just a minute.

**India

The Secretary-General was shocked to hear of this morning's tragic railway accident in India, and he deeply regrets the loss of life, and shares the grief of the many afflicted families. (See Press Release SG/SM/7085.)

**Colombia

I have the following statement, attributable to the Spokesman, on the subject of Colombia.

"The Secretary-General wishes to express his concern for the loss of life caused by the conflict in Colombia. The past weeks have brought a worrisome escalation of violence, at a time when peace negotiations were set to take place. Since Friday, bomb attacks have led to numerous deaths, including those of civilians and, among them, several children. The people of Colombia, and with them the international community and the United Nations, had harboured hope and expectation at the prospect that negotiations might finally ensue. The Secretary-General urges parties to the conflict to pursue dialogue and negotiation and wishes to encourage the respect of international humanitarian law as well as the protection of the civilian population. (See Press Release SG/SM/7086.)

**Sierra Leone

You'll see, I think it is on the racks now, the Secretary-General's report on Sierra Leone. In it, he summarizes the Lomé Peace Agreement and discusses the role of the United Nations in its implementation.

On peacekeeping, no agreement has yet been reached between the Economic Community of West African States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG) and the United Nations on the division of labour. The present and previous ECOMOG Force Commanders in Sierra Leone, as well as the Chief of Operations, are here in New York this week to discuss this issue with the Secretariat. In the

meantime, in order not lose momentum, the Secretary-General recommends an immediate increase in the number of military observers in Sierra Leone, to 210 from the 70 that are currently authorized.

In the report, the Secretary-General also recommends strengthening the human rights components, as well as the political and civilian affairs ones, and mentions what actions the United Nations can take in the human rights area, to assist the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the national Human Rights Commission, both envisaged in the peace agreement. He also suggests that, in order to ensure accountability for serious human rights violations, the Security Council may wish to consider various steps, "including", he says, "the establishment in due course of a commission of enquiry as recommended to the Government of Sierra Leone by Mary Robinson, the High Commissioner for Human Rights".

**East Timor

On East Timor, we have voter registration figures from the United Nations mission there as of the end of July, and the number is more than 378,000 people registered, with three days left to go in the registration period.

While these figures are preliminary, they do demonstrate that a substantial number of people have registered on a consistent basis, according to the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) spokesman in Dili. He said the initial estimates are encouraging, showing that "we are on target with the numbers".

All registration centres are open today. Some of them are being staffed, with additional personnel to handle internally displaced persons who are coming in to register.

We have a transcript of the briefing notes from Dili available for you in my Office.

**The Balkans

In Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, the Secretary-General's Special Representative, today reopened the post and telecommunications building in Pristina. Four hundred former employees returned to work, in a major first step to restoring telephone and postal services to Kosovo, which have been largely dysfunctional since March.

Also, over the weekend, the United Nations mission in Kosovo took steps to restore normal customs functions at the international border. United Nations civilian police deployed at four border crossing points -- two on the border with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, two with Albania -- and they began tracking the flow of people and goods.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 2 August 1999

We have press releases on both those items, as well as the daily press briefing of spokeswoman Nadia Younes.

Justice Louise Arbour, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, today welcomed the detention of Radimir Kovac by SFOR troops. Mr. Kovac was a subcommander of the Military Police and a paramilitary leader in Foca. He has been accused of crimes allegedly committed by Serb soldiers, policemen and members of paramilitary groups in Foca in 1992 and 1993. That was a particularly bloody beginning of the conflict in Bosnia.

Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, spoke in Geneva today and pledged to ensure that human rights are at the core of humanitarian assistance to Kosovo, and are central, she said, to the rebuilding of the democratic structures there.

She said her offices in Belgrade and Pristina will assist Yugoslavia's evolution towards proper respect for the rule of law and human rights, and added that she is working with partner agencies to examine long-range human rights issues in the Balkans as a whole.

She made her comments in an address to the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, which today began a four-week session in Geneva.

We have the full text of her speech in my Office.

Today, Jacques Klein, the new Special Representative of the Secretary- General and Coordinator of United Nations Operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, assumed his new post in Sarajevo. He succeeds Elizabeth Rehn, who served there since January 1998.

We have a press release from that mission in my Office.

Security Council

There is no Security Council meeting today. The President of the Council for August, Ambassador Martin Andjaba of Namibia, is holding bilateral consultations, and they may have a closed session tomorrow to discuss their programme of work.

**Treaty Update

Cambodia last week ratified the Ottawa landmine ban, which now has 84 States parties.

And that is all I have for you. Any questions before we go to Mr. Kruiderink?

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 2 August 1999

Question: We haven't had an update on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Answer: No. We noted with some satisfaction that one of the rebel leaders, Mr. Bemba, has signed the accord. We hope this is a further movement in the right direction and that we can get, if necessary, the remaining signatures and move the process forward.

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